Sutra 29
The material senses can perceive the material world, but they cannot perceive the spiritual world in the same way, for that world is beyond their ability to know.
Commentary by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura
Here someone may protest: Do not the scriptures say, 'vaikuntham tad-adhisthanam drastum te munayo gatah' (Many sages have gone to see the spiritual world)? Many devarsis, brahmarsis and other great souls have gone to the spiritual world, seen the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and returned to this world to describe what they have seen. Why have you spoken these mistaken words that will bewilder all who hear them?
To refute this protest the author of the sutras begins this passage beginning with sutra 29.
The Supreme Personality of Godhead and His spiritual world cannot be perceived by the material senses in the same way the material world is perceived by them. This is so because the spiritual world is beyond the knowledge of the material senses (adhoksaja). That is the meaning. The idea that the spiritual world can be seen by material senses is an idea created by the illusory energy of the Lord. In truth the spiritual world is beyond the perception of the material senses. In the scriptures it is said:
"The spiritual world of Vaikuntha is worshipped by all the worlds."
No one returns from the spiritual world. This is described in Bhagavad-gita (15.6) where the Supreme Personality of Godhead says:
"One who reaches My abode never returns to this material world."
============
AM I GOD?
The impersonalist “I am God”ist Swami Muktananda advised his students:
Meditate on your Self. Honor and worship your own Self. Kneel to your Self, because the supreme reality, the highest truth lives within you as you.*
Obviously, such an “I am God”ist or impersonalist can be very dangerous to others and society. Many of these “I am God”ists end up as the most extreme of all hedonists—having illicit sex with their disciples, drinking alcohol, taking drugs, smoking, eating meat, and engaging in all kinds of debauchery. They declare that they can do so without being contaminated karmically because they are so “spiritually advanced.” At the moment, the Western world (as well as India) is crawling with such charlatans.
Siddhaswarupananda - Chris Butler Speaks
*Swami Muktananda, Getting Rid of What You Haven’t Got (Oakland: S.Y.D.A. Foundation, 1978), p. 43.
============
In Bhagavad-gita (8.16) the Supreme Personality of Godhead again says:
"One who attains My abode, O son of Kunti, never takes birth again."
In the Taittiriya Upanisad (2.4.1) it is said:
"The descriptive power of speech fails in the realm of the Absolute Truth."
It is also said:
"The spiritual world is made of pure goodness. There every desire is at once fulfilled."
It is also said:
"The Spiritual world of Vaikuntha is worshipped by all the worlds."
In the Narada-pancaratra, Lord Sadasiva explains:
"The eternal spiritual world of Goloka is situated in the spiritual sky."
In Srimad Bhagavatam (2.9.9-11) the following description of Brahma's vision of Vaikuntha is given:
"The Personality of Godhead, being thus very much satisfied with the penance of Lord Brahma, was pleased to manifest His personal abode, Vaikuntha, the supreme planet above all others. This transcendental abode of the Lord is adored by all self-realised persons freed from all kinds of miseries and fear of illusory existence.
